


Ralash-Tanaf Na'Etek (Music for Us)

by burning_spirit



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Classical Music, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Connection to Music, Emotional Overload, Established Relationship, Evening cuddles, Eye Sex, Five Year Mission, Fluff, Holding Hands, Hugging/Embracing, Hurt/Comfort (sort of), Idiots in Love, Inspired by Music, It's Kirk, It's Spock - Freeform, James T. Kirk Loves Spock, James T. Kirk/Spock Fluff, K/S Day 2018, Kirk is hopelessly in love, Kirk/Spock Day, M/M, Making Out, Married James T. Kirk/Spock, Married Life, Meditation, Music, Musical References, One Shot, Overwhelmed, Romance, Somebody's in the mood, Space Husbands, Spock Loves James T. Kirk, Spock is hopelessly in love, Tenderness, Touching, True Love, Vulcan Bond, Vulcan Culture, Vulcan Kisses, Vulcan Language, Vulcan music, after work, k/s - Freeform, otp, so in love it hurts, spirk, terms of endearment, vulcan hand porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 12:32:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15995303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burning_spirit/pseuds/burning_spirit
Summary: Captain Kirk and Commander Spock bond over a little evening music.





	Ralash-Tanaf Na'Etek (Music for Us)

**Author's Note:**

> I usually imagine the original Star Trek cast in my work, but I've tried to maintain enough ambiguity that you can read this as the AOS guys if you prefer.
> 
> Posted in celebration of K/S Day 2018—happy anniversary to our beloved space husbands!! :) :) :)
> 
> Please refer to the end notes for Vulcan translations and more thoughts.
> 
> Special thanks to Amelia_Elizabeth, willa_belle_m, and winonakirk57 for their beta services!

After having their dinner cut short by an impromptu call to engineering for half an hour, Captain Kirk was ready to make his apologies on finally entering Spock’s dimly lit quarters.  He was surprised, however, to find that rather than meditating, his husband was deeply absorbed in a musical piece Kirk didn’t recognize.  Naïvely thinking Spock may not have heard him come in, he silently keyed in the door’s lock codes and sat cross-legged on the floor with him, hoping not to disturb him.

“Hello, _t’hy’la_ ,” Spock said without opening his eyes.

“Hi,” Kirk said, a little startled.  “I’m sorry if I, um… interrupted you.”

Kirk was silenced when one of Spock’s fingers pressed against his lips.  He resisted the temptation to kiss and lick and suck on that finger, sensing that perhaps this was not the time.

Spock’s hands lowered to Kirk’s lap, blindly drawing the captain’s fingers into his own and weaving them together intimately.  A soft breeze rushed through their bodies at the contact, a mysterious but refreshing side effect of their bonded minds and spirits.

A little more of the music went by, Kirk trying his best to identify it, or at least parts of it that might stand out as vaguely familiar.  He easily discerned that it was a Vulcan composition, as it was orchestrated for a body of distinctly Vulcan instruments and it was based upon a series of just-slightly-unearthly rhythms and scales.  He wasn’t yet practiced enough in the music of his spouse’s culture to pick out who the composer was, or who any of the soloists might be, but it was obvious through his touch that this was one of Spock’s favorite works.

The first officer’s hands twitched infinitesimally with the rhythm of certain motifs, his eyebrows raising and furrowing in a more emotive manner than Kirk had ever seen from him in response to music, despite knowing that Spock and his father were two of their home world’s most respected performers.  Besides that, the warm sensation now flowing between their hands was growing considerably fierier on Spock’s end than Kirk was accustomed to, so passionate and heated that he almost tried to pull away from the intensity.  But he found himself immobilized by the chiseled features of his bondmate’s face moving in such enchanting ways—and by his spontaneous recall of the tantalizing lyre-playing capabilities of the graceful fingers interlaced with his own.

“Are you listening, Jim,” Spock said, leaving his eyes shut, “or are you merely studying me?”

Kirk wondered what was so bad about him paying his partner more attention than the music in this moment.

Then one of Spock’s eyes opened and, with an emphatic squeeze of the hands, pinned Kirk absolutely still right in the middle of an inhalation.  “ _Listen_ ,” he urged in a whisper, before closing his eye again.

Mimicking his lover, Kirk let his own eyelids drift downward and made an effort to actually focus on the music, attempting to clear his head of all the delicious thoughts he was starting to have about the gorgeous creature before him.  _This is important to him_ , he thought, willing himself to experience the music, to _feel_ it in the same way Spock was.

For the remainder of the composition—another fifteen to twenty minutes, by Kirk’s estimation—they sat calmly, quietly, with their hands connected and massaging one another at various intervals.  It was a struggle at first for Kirk to let the aural signals he was receiving take precedence over the Vulcan kisses they were sharing; although they had only been married and bonded for a few months, he already knew he would never turn down an opportunity to practice the _ozh’esta_ with his Spock.  If he could just hold out until the end of the song, perhaps his husband would reward him by properly stimulating his semi-erection with those elegant kissing fingers.

 _James…_ Spock gently admonished through their mental link.

_I’m sorry, honey, but I can’t help myself when you’re—_

Spock gripped Kirk’s hands too tightly for a split second, effectively shutting up the naughty Human.

Kirk soon became immersed in the unexpected romance of the piece, the beautifully foreign and unpredictable melodic lines, the brief but pregnant rests, the captivating instrumentations that could only have been put together by a true master.  His heart rate accelerated as the composition began to crescendo, and he felt Spock transmit a few brisk bursts of tranquility through their joined fingertips to keep him from completely melting into the music.  The captain wondered if this was all his own response to the work, or if he was unwittingly borrowing some of Spock’s emotional reactions.

A few tears slid from Kirk’s tightly sealed eyes as the composition ended.  At the last note he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, only to gasp for more air at the overwhelming effect the music seemed to have elicited from his body and soul.

As he trembled, trying to level off his breathing and resist the tears still threatening behind his eyelids, Kirk felt Spock pulling him close.  A pair of strong arms wrapped around him and cradled his head against the firm chest they belonged to, Spock’s body having returned to its normal cool temperature.  The Vulcan’s even breaths fluttered across Kirk’s hair, causing more goose bumps to form on his skin.

“I apologize if this was more intense than you were prepared for it to be,” Spock murmured, his sweet baritone plucking all the right strings in Kirk’s tenderized heart.

“No,” Kirk said, pressing his cheek into the hollow of Spock’s neck.  “It was magnificent.  I’m just… surprised at there being any other piece of music in the universe that can do this to me.”

“Any _other_ piece?” Spock said, rubbing Kirk’s back in a comforting motion.  “You have reacted this way to music before?”

Kirk smiled weakly against Spock’s collarbone.  “Don’t sound so shocked.  I’m Human, I’m emotional, I can be deeply affected by music just like most people.”

“I meant no offense, _adun_ ,” Spock said, dotingly sifting a hand through Kirk’s hair.  “I was simply curious about your previous statement.  Did you mean to imply that there is some composition from Earth which causes you to lose yourself in a similar manner?”

“Yes,” Kirk said softly, soothed by the vibration of Spock’s voice in his chest.  “Yes, there is.”

“Would you consider sharing the experience with me someday?” Spock asked after a beat, his tone poignantly delicate.

By not asking what the music in question was or who had composed it, Spock had inadvertently caused Kirk to choke back a sob, his heart clogging his throat.  Of course the first officer could have been trusted not to seek out the piece on his own, before Kirk had a chance to play his favorite recording for him, but his complete trust in and respect for Kirk’s timing had the captain very nearly heaving with emotional overload.

Kirk breathed deeply, finally coming down from the transwarp rollercoaster Spock’s music had put him on.  Completely intoxicated, he inhaled that rich, masculine Vulcan musk, luxuriated in the drag of those long fingers against his scalp, and fortified himself by burying his fists in the front of that sexy purple velvet robe before moving to touch his lips to his husband’s.

The kiss was deep from the start, their usual game of advance-and-retreat far from either of their minds as Kirk immediately began exploring Spock’s mouth with his tongue and slipped his hands into the silken black hair he so adored.  Parting and rejoining their lips frequently, with more sound effects than was typical, they languidly tasted and savored each other for five or six of the most gut-wrenchingly impassioned minutes of Kirk’s life.  They gave and took equally, as always, but the pressure was soon more powerful than the now fully aroused Human could bear without pushing farther.  Spock’s fingers caressing the electrified skin beneath his shirt were too gentle, too sensual for Kirk to be denied any longer.

He reluctantly pulled away, moaning at the sight of Spock’s tongue peeking out to lap up what it still could of Kirk’s presence on his lips.

“Rachmaninoff,” he said, causing Spock to slowly open his eyes in curiosity.  “Second piano concerto.”  Anchoring his hands in Spock’s hair, Kirk locked their gazes with a smoldering intensity, his breaths coming hot and moist between them.  “I want your first time hearing it to be in my cabin while we make love.”

Pupils dilating, Spock cleared his throat.  “I am indeed not familiar with the work.”

The corner of Kirk’s mouth played up in the mischievous grin that always seemed to weaken Spock’s knees—or, in this case, his regal posture.

“You will be, sweetheart,” he said in his most seductive timbre, leaning in for another worshipful kiss that he didn’t break until he’d pulled Spock up and dragged him to the door.  “In about ninety seconds.”

**Author's Note:**

>  _ralash-tanaf_ = music  
>  _na’_ = for  
>  _etek_ = us  
>  _t’hy’la_ = friend/brother/lover  
>  _ozh’esta_ = finger embrace, a touching of the index and middle fingers between bondmates  
>  _adun_ = husband
> 
> *All translations taken from the Vulcan Language Dictionary at https://www.starbase-10.de/vld/
> 
> Spock tells the senior officers in a deleted scene from “Elaan of Troyius” that he was honored with second place in the All-Vulcan Music Competition—and that his father was first.
> 
> Also, there are a few places in TOS where Spock’s body temperature is either discussed as or shown to be _lower_ than a Human’s, so that’s what I’ve gone with here.
> 
> A/N: My personal favorite rendition of the Rachmaninoff concerto Kirk mentions is the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2005 recording conducted by Antonio Pappano and featuring Leif Ove Andsnes on the piano. I encourage everyone to give a listen to any recording, though; it is an absolutely magnificent work. :)


End file.
